Geography 2025-2026

Geography

Our intent:

Geography gives out pupils a coherent knowledge and understanding of the world: its people, its composition, its history and its future. We inspire pupils' curiosity to know more about their place as global citizens, who will face the challenges of sustainability with confidence. We want pupils to...

Speak like a geographer: using high level geographical vocabulary to confidently discuss key geographical themes.

Think like a geographer: showing curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, gaining contextual knowledge of different locations, including culture, resources and environments.

Act like a geographer: experiencing fieldwork opportunities to interpret a range of geographical sources, collecting data, analyse and communicate geographical knowledge. In addition to this, students will engage with sustainable behaviours in school and their own lives.

Read like a geographer: taking a fascination in geographical literature to further their geographical interests.

Learning in Action

Nursery

In nursery, starting in our 2 year old room, students will explore the similarities and differences between the outside and inside world, noting instances of repeated actions such as rolling a ball down a pipe or dropping a stone in water and natural phenomena of the outside world. Further to this, students will begin to notice differences between people, places and materials.

In our 3-4 setting, students will be primarily taught directional language in order for our young people to begin developing conversations around place and location. This language will be further used to make observations regarding different places and recreate such observations within the context of their given play. Students will begin to discuss seasonal changes, care for our natural world and patterns between human and physical geography through simple vocabulary. All geography in our nursery will be explored though a diverse range of props, books and photos as a stimulus with use of the five sense.

Nursery Bear Hunt
Nursery Bear Hunt

Reception

In reception, students will begin to understand that they live within St Stephen and Cornwall and be able to point at them on simple maps. Through their continuous provision, students will learn to appreciate differences between people, cultures and environments so that they can compose simple maps and drawings. Students will be able to compare places by using geographical resources such as simple maps and aerial photographs.

Year 1

In year 1, students develop their understanding of geography by describing why there are differences and similarities between people, cultures and environments. In addition to this, students will be able to name and locate locations within the British Isles - students will be able to locate St Stephen, Cornwall and London on a simple map. Students will gain an understanding of temperature, make conscious efforts to recycle within the school and use geographical language to express their own views. Students will collect data as a class, use maps to move around known areas and compose maps by using a key.

Year 2

Students in Year 2 will be able to name and locate places within the British Isles and abroad independently. Students will be able to observe the characteristics of a given place through geographical vocabulary. Students will build on their work in Year 1 by linking the idea of temperature to a places location against the equator. Students will continue to further their map skills by using and composing keys and aerial photographs, using these to navigate around known areas. Students will ask geographical questions which they can answer through investigative fieldwork, representing their findings in mathematical charts.

Year 3

As students begin KS2 they will be taught to locate taught geographical locations by using maps and globes. Further to this, students will begin to articulate a conflict between human and physical geography in these locations by using taught examples. In addition to this, geographical discussions will take place in context to the equator and the tropics. Students will use fieldwork, maps and atlases to begin their understanding of scale and topography, using geographical resources to navigate through unknown places. In Year 3, students will also make efforts to develop the sustainability of their school and St Stephen as a whole.

Year 4

In Year 4, students will be able to locate and discuss geographical places of their own interest without prompt. In doing so, students will begin to use higher level vocabulary such as settlement, economy, tropics and climate with more confidence. Further to this, students work will be grounded in questions of causality as they begin to articulate the relationship between physical and human features. Students will be able to traverse unknown areas by using their knowledge of keys and scale and be able to recall their journeys using geographical vocabulary.

Year 5

In Year 5, students will be able to make analytical links between a given location and concepts such as climate, the economy, sustainability and conflict. In doing so, students will empathise with another's geographical circumstances. Whilst engaging in geographical discussions, students will be able to use maps independently as a means to support their geographical analysis, recognising similarities and differences across the world. Students will be able to independently point at areas of topographical importance, including the tropics, the equator and zones of climate.

Year 6

As students end their geographical journey at St Stephens, they will be able to form geographical predictions based on previously taught geographical knowledge. In doing so, students will show a curiosity and a fascination for the interconnectivity between themselves and people leaving in geographical locations alien to them. Students in Year 6 will present the conflict between human and physical geography in a range of ways and will choose the appropriate form based on their geographical discussions and the resources used. In Year 6, students will be encouraged to decipher geographical analysis from a range of resources in addition to their map work.

Wider Curriculum

At St Stephen, we ensure each child has the opportunity to complete fieldwork once a year. Further to this, we make sure to engage in the Geographical Association's fieldwork week, celebrate Fair Trade week and engage students within all nationalised events within a geographical context. In addition, each weeks Picture News has locational knowledge weaved within its teachings.

Knowledge Organisers

Find below examples of our schools planning documents and front sheets for KS1 and KS2.

Assessment

In every key stage, students are given a set question designed to challenge their geographical thinking. Within this question, students are assessed on their fluency in geographical vocabulary, their ability to articulate geographical conflicts and their place and/or locational knowledge. If fieldwork provides the assessment opportunity in a given topic, staff will make teacher assessments alongside the geography progression and give brief written feedback to the students.

SEND Provision

In geography, we have many ways of providing SEND provision.